Biografie von Pavel Petrovic SVININ (1788-1839)

Birth place: Russia

Death place: St. Petersburg

Profession: Genre, landscape, and portrait painter in watercolor

Studied: Svinin was educated at a school for the nobility in Moscow and at Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg

Exhibited: PAFA, 1812

Member: Acad. Fine Arts of St. Petersburg

Work: MMA (over fifty watercolors of American scenes)

Comments: He was born on either June 8, 1787 (Yarmolinsky) or June 19, 1788 (White). He entered the service of the Foreign Office and in 1811 came to America as secretary to the Russian Consul-General, with headquarters at Philadelphia. During his two years in the U.S., he traveled often from Maine to Virginia, painting American scenes (now owned by the Metropolitan Museum). After returning to Russia, Svinin published his A Picturesque Voyage in North America, as well as books on the Mediterranean and England. From 1818 to 1830 he was also the editor of a patriotic magazine, traveled widely in Russia, and wrote on many subjects.

Sources: G&W; A sketch of his life by Abraham Yarmolinsky, as well as reproductions of Svinin's American watercolors, are included in Yarmolinsky, ed., Picturesque United States of America, 1811, 1812, 1813 (New York, 1930). A more recent account of Svinin is White, A Russian Sketches Philadelphia, 1811-1813." See also Rutledge, PA; American Processional.